This device relates to hand tools for stripping insulation from sections of insulated electrical wire and more particularly to a hand operated electrically heated thermal wire stripper.
In the field it is often necessary to remove insulation from electrical wire without nicking, scratching, or cutting the wire itself. Electrical failures can result from wire which has been weakened or damaged during the insulation stripping process.
In a device such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,892 to Siden, deformable blades of sufficient hardness to cut through the insulation, but not the wire, are employed. Significant manual pressure, however, is required to cut through the insulation, especially in the case of wires covered by Teflon insulation. This pressure, in combination with blades of sufficient hardness to cut through the Teflon insulation, can result in indentations in the wire during the stripping process.
Other devices employ thermal means to sever the insulation from the wire. Such devices, however, employ metallic blades which are electrically heated. The metal-to-metal contact between the blade and the wire which occur during the stripping process often results in a slight nicking or scratching of the wire. Also, certain military specifications specifically require that, during the stripping process, no current carrying element shall contact the wire being stripped.
It is an object of this invention to provide a thermal wire stripper using heater elements imbedded within a set of ceramic blades. The blades have semicircular mating recesses in the clamping edges thereof. These semicircular mating recesses permit the surface of the ceramic blades to contact the insulation but not the wire within.
It is another object of this invention to provide ceramic blades which can be easily replaced when they become dull, when the heater elements within them burn out, or when it becomes necessary to accommodate another size of wire.